Pattern Mixing

I have a new mantra for my photography practice: The best best photos are built with confidence not caution.

I’m making notes on the interplay between photos, where layers reveal themselves slowly, creating complexity that belies a simple snapshot. I am studying proportion, scale and contrast. Looking for ways to spread the visual weight across the photo or across multiple photos for a collage or a book to result in balance (but not in that perfect, matchy-matchy kind of way). I use the print module of Lightroom to bring images together, scrapbook-style, looking at scale and placement, seeing if they play nicely. A few meaningful photos always speak louder than a collection of images with no connection.

Love Mural | Ashland, Virginia | September 2025

Wiggle Room

Structure feels softer, and more inviting, when it bends a little.

I am drawn to color and lines and edges. In general, I see the world in a head-on kind of way. But there is room for me to expand. To swap hard edges for curves, arches, and fluid lines. To embrace playfulness.

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

Monroe Bay, Sailboats | September 2025

I’m not sure you can ever go home. As in a do-over of childhood. Everything still remains the same. It all looks different. Big homes tower above the modest home of my childhood. The small town is full of new residents with new ways. But there is still that loneliness that won’t leave me alone. This is the place I am from but not the place where I feel at home.

Monroe Bay, Lighthouse Bench | September 2025

I Would Not Eat Sour Crab Apples

Crab Apple Tree, September 2025

I would not eat a crab apple
even if
you paid me to.
Sour things, 
both food and people, 
make me feel anxious.
Sweets are my jam
and sweetie pie 
is my favorite of all. 

Turquoise House with Green Awning, September 2025

But I would like to live
in a tiny house,
painted turquoise
with a green awning over the front door.
I'd plant a patch
of perennials and herbs
and give away 
bouquets of fragrant flowers,
tucked into small glass jars.